Methodology, Applications, and Research Opportunities
WORK IN PROGESS - LAST UPDATED: 2025-11-06
This lecture explores how firm websites can be leveraged as a rich data source for accounting and business research. We will cover:
Data & Methods - Web scraping frameworks and tools - Wayback Machine and historical website archives - Building longitudinal disclosure datasets
Research Applications - Corporate disclosure analysis - Private equity deal characteristics - Regulatory compliance monitoring
Click above to view the complete presentation with examples from recent research papers.
By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:
✅ Understand how to systematically scrape and archive organizational websites
✅ Evaluate website-based disclosure measures critically
✅ Design research projects using novel web-based data sources
✅ Apply these methods to classic accounting research questions
The lecture draws on recent research including:
Instructor: Caspar David Peter
Email: peter@rsm.nl
Institution: Rotterdam School of Management
ORCID: 0000-0003-0020-1673
Firm Websites as a Data Source for Accounting Research